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| United States Patent |
6,000,975
|
|
Feldman
|
December 14, 1999
|
Canted beam electrical contact and receptacle housing therefor
Abstract
A stamped electrical socket contact for connection to a contact pin which
is inserted along a pin insertion axis, and a method for forming such a
socket contact. The socket contact includes a body portion from which a
first longitudinal beam and a second longitudinal beam extend. The first
and second beams are positioned about a central plane. When viewed from a
direction normal to the central plane, the first and second beams
intersect the pin insertion axis at an acute angle.
| Inventors:
|
Feldman; Steven (Madison, OH)
|
| Assignee:
|
3M Innovative Properties Company (Saint Paul, MN)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
990037 |
| Filed:
|
December 12, 1997 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
439/857 |
| Intern'l Class: |
H01R 011/22 |
| Field of Search: |
439/857,856
|
References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
| 3838388 | Sep., 1974 | Bauerle et al. | 439/857.
|
| 4140361 | Feb., 1979 | Sochor | 339/258.
|
| 4150863 | Apr., 1979 | Krafthefer et al. | 439/629.
|
| 4379611 | Apr., 1983 | Foege et al. | 439/747.
|
| 4480386 | Nov., 1984 | Adams | 29/874.
|
| 4591230 | May., 1986 | Roldan | 339/258.
|
| 4607907 | Aug., 1986 | Bogursky | 339/258.
|
| 4678278 | Jul., 1987 | Friesen et al. | 350/319.
|
| 4687278 | Aug., 1987 | Grabbe et al. | 439/842.
|
| 4702545 | Oct., 1987 | Moyaert | 439/856.
|
| 4720277 | Jan., 1988 | Sakamoto | 439/842.
|
| 4722704 | Feb., 1988 | VanDerStuyf et al. | 439/851.
|
| 4772234 | Sep., 1988 | Cooper | 439/851.
|
| 4776651 | Oct., 1988 | Paulo | 439/857.
|
| 4874338 | Oct., 1989 | Bakermans | 439/851.
|
| 4909746 | Mar., 1990 | Scholz | 439/82.
|
| 4918813 | Apr., 1990 | Mori et al. | 29/874.
|
| 4975084 | Dec., 1990 | Fedder et al. | 439/608.
|
| 5080597 | Jan., 1992 | Seidel et al. | 439/108.
|
| 5183421 | Feb., 1993 | Yin | 439/857.
|
| 5334053 | Aug., 1994 | Noschese | 439/682.
|
| 5472358 | Dec., 1995 | Tan et al. | 439/851.
|
| 5597324 | Jan., 1997 | Katsunori | 439/587.
|
| 5611717 | Mar., 1997 | Joly | 439/857.
|
| 5683274 | Nov., 1997 | Straeb et al. | 439/839.
|
| 5797774 | Aug., 1998 | Kaneko | 439/857.
|
| 5860838 | Jan., 1999 | Kaneko | 439/857.
|
| Foreign Patent Documents |
| 0 219 935 A2 | Aug., 1986 | EP | .
|
| 0308068 | Mar., 1989 | EP | 439/857.
|
| 0 429 177 A1 | May., 1991 | EP | .
|
| 000571105 | Nov., 1993 | EP | 439/856.
|
| 1187074 | Sep., 1959 | FR | 439/857.
|
| 3424072 | Jan., 1986 | DE | 439/857.
|
| 004034941 | Sep., 1991 | DE | 439/857.
|
| 41 20 792 A1 | Jan., 1992 | DE | .
|
| WO 092004746 | Mar., 1992 | WO | 439/856.
|
| WO 96/30969 | Oct., 1996 | WO | .
|
Primary Examiner: Abrams; Neil
Assistant Examiner: Farroli; Michael C.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: McNutt; Matthew B.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. An electrical socket contact for connection to a contact pin by
insertion of the contact pin into the socket contact along a pin insertion
axis, the socket contact comprising:
a body portion defining a base plane;
a first longitudinal beam and a second longitudinal beam extending from the
body portion; and
a central plane coincident with the pin insertion axis and centrally
located between the first longitudinal beam and normal to the base plane,
the central plane the second longitudinal beam;
wherein the first longitudinal beam and the longitudinal second
longitudinal beam intersect the pin insertion axis at an acute angle when
viewed from a direction normal to the central plane.
2. The socket contact of claim 1, wherein the first longitudinal beam and
the second longitudinal beam form mirror images of each other about the
central plane.
3. The electrical socket contact of claim 1, wherein the body portion
includes elements for securing the socket contact in a contact housing.
4. The electrical socket contact of claim 1, further comprising a shank
extending from the body portion, the shank in parallel alignment with the
pin insertion axis, wherein the first longitudinal beam and the second
longitudinal beam are cantilevered from the shank.
5. The socket contact of claim 4, wherein the shank has a cross-sectional
shape which conforms to a cross-sectional contour of the contact pin.
6. The socket contact of claim 5, wherein the cross-sectional shape of the
shank describes an arc of a circle.
7. The socket contact of claim 1, wherein the first longitudinal beam and
the second longitudinal beam form a funnel-shaped lead-in portion for
receiving the contact pin.
8. An electrical connector comprising:
a housing having a contact receptacle; and
a socket contact for receiving a contact pin along a pin insertion axis
within the contact receptacle, the contact having:
a body portion including elements for securing the socket contact in the
housing wherein the body portion defines a base plane;
a first longitudinal beam and a second longitudinal beam extending from the
body portion; and
a central plane coincident with the insertion axis and normal to the base
plane, the central plane centrally located between the first longitudinal
beam and the second longitudinal beam;
wherein the longitudinal first beam and the longitudinal second beam
intersect the pin insertion axis at an acute angle when viewed from a
direction normal to the central plane.
9. The electrical connector of claim 8, wherein the first longitudinal beam
and the second longitudinal beam form mirror images of each other about
the central plane.
10. The electrical connector of claim 8, wherein the contact receptacle
includes a beam constraint for limiting movement of the socket contact
within the receptacle.
11. The electrical connector of claim 8, further comprising a shank
extending from the body portion of the socket contact, the shank in
parallel alignment with the pin insertion axis, wherein the first
longitudinal beam and the second longitudinal beam are cantilevered from
the shank.
12. The electrical connector of claim 11 wherein the shank has a
cross-sectional shape which conforms to a cross-sectional contour of the
contact pin.
13. The electrical connector of claim 12, wherein the cross-sectional shape
of the shank describes an arc of a circle.
14. The electrical connector of claim 8, wherein the first longitudinal
beam and the second longitudinal beam form a funnel-shaped lead-in portion
for receiving the contact pin.
15. The electrical connector of claim 8, further comprising:
a plurality of said contact receptacles in the housing; and
a plurality of said socket contacts within the plurality of contact
receptacles.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to socket contacts which can be installed in
a housing with a small spacing between the contacts for connection to a
corresponding array of conductive pins that are insertable into the socket
contacts to form an electrical connection.
Receptacle-type contacts are commonly manufactured by stamping a metal
sheet to provide a carrier strip carrying a plurality of socket contact
blanks. The contact blanks are subsequently bent into an appropriate
shape, and the formed contacts are then inserted into a connector housing.
Typically, the plurality of formed contacts on the carrier strip are
inserted into the housing as a single unit ("gang insertion"), thereby
simplifying and speeding the assembly process.
To permit multiple contacts to be inserted into the housing as a single
unit, the contacts must be spaced from each other on the carrier strip by
a distance which is an integral multiple of the pitch of the conductive
pins which will mate with the contacts. It is preferred that the
center-to-center spacing (e.g., pitch) of the formed contacts on the
carrier strip equals the pitch of the conductive pins, so that only a
single contact insertion step is required when installing a row of
contacts in the connector housing. If the pitch of the contacts on the
carrier strip is greater than the pitch of the conductive pins, multiple
contact insertion steps are required to install a single row of contacts.
For example, if the pitch of the contacts on the carrier strip is two
times the pitch of the conductive pins, two insertion steps are necessary,
with each insertion step installing one half (e.g., every other contact)
of the row of contacts into the connector housing.
If the pitch of the finished contacts is to equal the pitch of the finished
connector, then the width of each contact blank cannot be greater than the
pitch of the finished contacts. Because there is a continuing trend toward
miniaturization of connectors, the pitch of the connector pins and
contacts (and thus the width of the contact blanks) is continually
decreasing. As the pitch decreases, the formation of socket contacts using
a stamping and bending procedure becomes increasingly difficult for dual
beam contacts with oppositely disposed wipers. When the pitch of the
connector becomes less than or equal to the maximum pin diameter times pi
(e.g., circuit pitch .ltoreq.D.sub.max .pi.), a shortage of material
occurs in the contact blank. That is, the amount of material required to
form the contact blank is larger than the amount of available material on
the carrier strip.
The material shortage problem is illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. FIG.
1A shows an example of a known socket contact 2 having a shank 4 and
wipers 6 extending from shank 4. Wipers 6 are bent toward each other so as
to capture a contact pin (not shown in FIG. 1A) inserted between wipers 6.
It is desired to have the centerlines of wipers 6 align with the
centerline of contact pin 8, so that uniform normal forces are applied to
contact pin 8. FIG. 1B shows a cross section of socket contact 2 along
line 1B--1B of FIG. 1A, with a contact pin 8 inserted into socket contact
2. As shown in FIG. 1B, contact pin 8 has a diameter of 0.018 inch, the
socket contact 2 has a material width of 0.005 inch, wipers 6 have a
half-width of 0.0055 inch, and a clearance of 0.001 inch is provided
between shank 6 of contact pin 8 and socket contact 2. The centerline of
socket contact 2 thus has a radius R of 0.0125 inch from the center of
contact pin 8. The width of material needed to form socket contact 2 is
the sum total of: 1) the centerline length of the curved portion of socket
contact 2 (.pi.R =0.0393 inches ); 2) one half the width of each wiper 6
(0.0055 .times.2=0.0110 inches); and 3) the contact singulation width
(0.0040 inches). The singulation width is the amount of material needed to
account for separation of the individual contacts. Thus, to form shaped
socket contact 2, a flat blank width of 0.0543 inch is required. If the
pitch of the connector is 0.05 inch, for example, there will be a material
shortage of 0.0043 inch, and the centerlines of wipers 6 of the formed
socket contact 2 will not be positioned opposite each other on the
centerline of contact pin 8.
When a material shortage occurs with the type of socket contact illustrated
in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, there have been attempts to bring the wiper
centerlines into alignment with the contact pin centerline by stretching
the blanked material in the direction of arrows 9 during the shaping
processes. However, this results in an unstable forming process and thus
produces manufacturing difficulties. In addition, assembly issues also
arise in attempting to control the contact location within the housing
aperture to prevent the wiper edges from being the sole contact points
which engage the pin.
There are some socket contacts stamped on connector pitch when the pitch is
less than or equal to the maximum pin diameter times pi. For example,
International Publication No. WO 9630969 nests the contact spring arms by
staggering their position along the pin insertion axis. The resulting
geometry provides a formed contact having one rigid contact beam and one
compliant contact beam, with the contact points of the beams being offset
along the pin insertion axis. The offset contact points cause unequal
normal forces to be applied to the contact pin, which in turn results in
undesirable pivoting of the contact on the pin. To ensure that both
contact beams wipe the pin and to compensate for small variations in pin
location, the contact body is stamped with a compliant waist having a
reduced cross section. The reduced cross section of the contact causes
current crowding in the area of the waist, and further encourages
undesirable pivoting of the contact on the pin.
It is also known to deal with the material shortage problem by stamping and
forming the socket contacts at slightly greater than connector pitch, and
then pleating the carrier strip to move the formed contacts into an on
pitch spacing. This method also has drawbacks, primarily that the pleated
carrier strip is easily stretched. Thus, a complicated and expensive
handling system is required for pleated carrier strips.
Because of the material shortage problem illustrated above, the majority of
connector systems which have a circuit pitch which is less than or equal
to the maximum pin diameter times pi, such as CompactFlash, PCMCIA and
PCMIDE connectors, stamp the receptacle contacts on twice the circuit
pitch. Prior art receptacle contacts of this type are exemplified in U.S.
Pat. Nos. 4,678,278; 4,722,704; 4,874,338; 4,909,746; 4,720,277; and
5,597,324.
One type of receptacle socket contact is known as a dual-beam receptacle
socket contact. One embodiment of such a contact is illustrated in FIG.
1A. A contact of this type includes a pair of resilient beams configured
to grasp a conductive pin therebetween. The beams are disposed to contact
opposite sides of a conductive pin inserted into the connector, and are
formed to produce a contact force sufficiently low to allow easy pin
insertion while at the same time providing the required contact force for
long term ohmic contact upon insertion of the pin. The contact force must
be sufficiently low to prevent undesirably high insertion force, plating
wear, and bending of the pins during insertion while accommodating some
variance in the positioning of individual pins, but high enough to ensure
consistent electrical contact with the pin. Dual beam sockets are
disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,140,361; 4,591,230; 4,607,907;
and 4,702,545.
What is needed is a socket contact which can be stamped from a flat metal
sheet on connector pitch when pitch is less than or equal to pi times the
maximum pin diameter, and which reduces or overcomes the disadvantages of
the prior art socket contacts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a dual-beam socket contact for receiving a
contact pin. The socket contact can be formed by stamping a flat metal
sheet to produce a plurality of such contacts having a small
center-to-center spacing. The inventive contact can be stamped on
connector pitch when the pitch is less than or equal to pi times the
maximum diameter of the contact pin, while still allowing the centerline
of the beams to intersect the centerline of the contact pin.
A preferred embodiment of the contact includes a body portion from which a
shank extends. A first beam and a second beam extend from the shank. A
central reference plane is coincident with the pin insertion axis and
centrally located between the first beam and the second beam. The first
and second beams may form mirror images of each other about the central
plane. When viewed from a direction normal to the central plane, first
beam and the second beam intersect the pin insertion axis at an acute
angle.
The electrical socket contact may be inserted into an electrical connector
housing having a contact receptacle for receiving the socket contact. The
housing may have a plurality of contact receptacles for receiving a
plurality of socket contacts.
A method of forming the electrical socket contact includes the steps of
stamping a flat contact blank, where the flat contact blank defines a base
plane and further has a central reference plane oriented coincident to a
pin insertion axis and normal to the base plane. The blank includes a body
portion, a longitudinal shank extending from the body portion and in
parallel alignment with a pin insertion axis, and a first longitudinal
beam extending from a first edge of the shank and a second longitudinal
beam extending from an opposing second edge of the shank. The first and
second longitudinal beams are in parallel alignment with the shank. The
method further includes bending the first longitudinal beam along a first
line which forms an acute angle with the pin insertion axis when viewed
from a direction normal to the base plane, such that the longitudinal
first beam intersects the pin insertion axis at an acute angle when viewed
from a direction normal to the central plane; and bending the second
longitudinal beam along a second line which forms an acute angle with the
pin insertion axis when viewed from a direction normal to the base plane,
such that the longitudinal second beam intersects the pin insertion axis
at an acute angle when viewed from a direction normal to the central plane
.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a prior art socket contact.
FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along line 1B-1B of FIG. 1A.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the inventive
socket contact.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of a socket contact blank according to the present
invention.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged portion of the socket contact blank of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is an elevational view of a portion of a socket contact formed in
the conventional manner.
FIG. 6 is an elevational view of a portion of a socket contact formed
according to the present application.
FIG. 7 is an elevational view of an alternative embodiment of the inventive
socket contact.
FIGS. 8a and 8b are cross-sectional views of prior art shank stiffening
features.
FIG. 8c is a cross-sectional view of a preferred shank stiffening feature.
FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a connector receptacle containing the socket
contact of FIGS. 2 and 6.
FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a connector receptacle containing the
alternative socket contact of FIG. 7.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 2 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a dual beam socket contact 10
according to the present invention. The contact 10 is formed by stamping a
pattern for a plurality of such contacts in a flat metal blank and then
bending portions of the contact blank to form the final contact structure
as illustrated in FIG. 2.
The socket contact 10 is adapted for receiving a contact pin (not shown in
FIG. 2) along a pin insertion axis 14. Pin insertion axis 14 coincides
with the centerline of the contact pin. Socket contact 10 includes a body
portion 20, a shank 22, a first beam 24, and a second beam 26. Body
portion 20, at the rear end of the socket contact 10, is an enlarged
portion by which the contact 10 will be securely held in a receptacle of a
connector housing (not shown). Such connector housing and receptacle are
typically made of a thermoplastic material, and are described in greater
detail below. Preferably, body portion 20 is provided with barbs 28 for
engaging the receptacle walls and thereby assisting the retention of
contact 10 within the receptacle.
As shown in FIG. 3, socket contact 10 is stamped from a flat metal blank. A
plurality of socket contact blanks 30 are connected by a carrier strip 31
which carries the socket contact blanks 30 through the subsequent bending
and shaping steps which form the finished contact 10. On the carrier
strip, the socket contact blanks 30 are separated by a distance 32 which
is equal to the pitch of the connector. In this manner, it is possible to
gang-insert finished socket contacts 10 into contact receptacles in a
connector housing. After insertion, the carrier strip is removed from the
socket contacts and disposed.
Socket contact blank 30 defines a base plane and includes the
above-mentioned body portion 20, shank 22, first beam 24 and second beam
26. First beam 24 and second beam 26 form mirror images of each other
about a central plane 33 which extends between the first and second beams
22, 24 and is normal to the base plane defined by the contact blank 30.
First beam 24 and second beam 26 each include a free distal end 34 and a
proximal end 36 which is cantilevered to shank 22. It will be noted that
prior to forming the finished socket contact 10, first beam 24 and second
beam 26 are in parallel alignment with shank 22, and the contact points 38
of first beam 24 and second beam 26 are spaced from shank 22 by a distance
40. To form the finished contact 10, a series of bending and shaping steps
is performed.
A greatly enlarged portion of a contact blank 30, showing only a single
contact beam 24, is illustrated in FIG. 4. In a conventional socket
contact, the contact is shaped by bending first beam 24 along line 42,
while second beam 26 (not shown) is bent along a like line on the opposite
half of the blank 30. In this manner, first beam 24 and second beam 26 are
made generally perpendicular to the base plane of contact blank 30. First
beam 24 and second beam 26 typically also undergo additional shaping, as
seen in FIG. 2, to provide a ramped surface 43 for engaging a contact pin
therebetween.
As can be seen from FIG. 5, bending first beam 24 and second beam 26 along
line 42 in the conventional manner places the beam contact point 38 along
axis 44. FIG. 5 illustrates the "material shortage" problem (described
above in the Background section and further illustrated in FIG. 1B) which
occurs when the connector pitch is less than or equal to the maximum pin
diameter times pi. The material shortage results in the beam contact
points 38 failing to align with the pin centerline 46.
When beam contact point 38 does not align with centerline 46 of contact pin
48, the electrical connection between socket contact 10 and pin 48 is less
reliable for several reasons. When first beam 24 and second beam 26 are
not positioned absolutely opposite each other on the pin centerline, the
beams exert non-uniform normal forces on the pin which may damage the pin
and which also encourage undesirable contact rotation. Additionally, when
the beam contact point does not align with the pin centerline, only the
edge of the beam tends to contact the pin. This is undesirable because, as
the contact ages, corrosion tends to develop and reduce the effective
contact area of electrical contact. When only the edge of the beam is in
contact with the pin, the initial contact area is much smaller, and the
eventual corrosion thus impacts the connection performance in a shorter
period of time. This problem is exacerbated by the tendency of such
corrosion to initiate at the edges of the beam.
In the inventive contact described herein, first beam 24 is bent along a
divergent line 50 which forms an acute angle with pin insertion axis 14
when viewed from a direction normal to the base plane (defined by contact
blank 30). Bending first beam 22 along line 50 cants or angles first beam
24 upward from the plane of shank 22 to enable first beam 24 to engage
mating contact pin 48 along the pin centerline 46. Of course, opposing
second beam 26 is bent along a similar divergent line on the opposite half
of the contact blank 30. As best seen in FIG. 6, the divergent bend line
50 moves the contact point 38 of the first and second beams 24, 26 into
engagement with the centerline 46 of the mating pin 48, and causes first
and second beams 22, 24 to form an acute angle with pin centerline 46. The
bending along divergent line 50 thus permits the design of contacts which
can be stamped on socket pitch while keeping the beam contact point 38
coincident with the pin centerline 46. The invention thus employs a novel
socket contact geometry to overcome the material shortage problem
encountered by other socket contacts, when the connector pitch is less
than or equal to the maximum pin diameter times pi.
In addition to overcoming the material shortage problem of prior socket
contacts, the bending of first beam 24 along divergent line 50 (and the
bending of second beam 26 along a corresponding line) provides other
significant advantages to the inventive socket contact. As can be seen in
FIGS. 2 and 4, when beam 24 is bent along line 50, rather than line 42,
the contact 10 is provided with a funnel-shaped lead-in for pin 48. The
funnel-shaped lead-in eases the entry of pin 48 into socket contact 10 and
helps prevent stubbing of pin 48 on the end of contact 10.
A further advantage of the canted contact beam is shown in FIG. 6. A canted
beam provides a wider target area for contact pin 48 than would a beam
which is formed to align in parallel with the axis of pin 48. As shown in
FIG. 6, a canted beam presents a target area of width 52 for pin 48, while
the same beam, if it were aligned in parallel with the axis 46 of pin 48,
would only present a target area of width 54. The canted beam of the
present invention is therefor more tolerant of pin-to-socket misalignment
than conventional socket contacts having identically sized contact beams.
Alternatively, a narrower canted contact beam can present the same target
area as a wider beam which is aligned with the pin axis.
An alternative embodiment of the socket contact is shown in FIG. 7. In the
socket contact 10' of FIG. 7, contact beams 24, 26 have been bent in the
conventional manner (as illustrated in FIG. 5), and a transverse bend 60
has been made in shank 22 such that the axis 44 of the beam diverges at an
acute angle from the base plane defined by the contact blank. In this
manner, the axis 44 of the beam is caused to intersect the centerline 46
of pin 48 (when viewed from a direction normal to central plane 33) and
thereby provide the same benefits as described above for the preferred
embodiment.
It is preferred that shank 22 of socket contact 10, 10' have a stiffening
feature which reduces flexure of shank 22 along its longitudinal axis.
FIGS. 8a-8cschematically illustrate a cross sectional view of shank 22 and
contact pin 48 when the contact is positioned in a connector receptacle
70. Clearances between pin 48 and shank 22 are not shown for
simplification. Stiffening features known to be used in prior art contacts
are shown in FIGS. 8a and 8b. As can be seen, shank 22 in FIGS. 8a and 8b
is provided with a sharp ridge 68 extending along the longitudinal axis of
shank 22 (which extends into the plane of the Figures).
Ridge 68 successfully reduces the ability of shank 22 to flex along its
longitudinal axis, but produces several disadvantages as well.
Specifically, ridge 68 requires that receptacle 70 which receives the
contact be made large enough to accommodate ridge 68 on shank 22. As
connector pitch becomes smaller, the wall thickness between adjacent
receptacles becomes correspondingly thinner. This in turn leads to reduced
strength of the connector housing 72, and greater difficulty in molding
the connector housing 72. It is therefor desirable to reduce the size of
receptacle 70, and thereby permit greater wall thickness and easier
component molding.
Accordingly, contact 10, 10' of the present invention is preferably
provided with a shank 22 having a curved cross-section which follows the
contour of pin 48, as illustrated in FIG. 8c. The curved cross section of
shank 22 shown in FIG. 8c reduces the ability of shank 22 to flex along
its longitudinal axis, while at the same time allowing receptacle 70 to be
reduced in size. The latter benefit is clearly seen when comparing FIG. 8c
to FIGS. 8a and 8b, where the size of each receptacle 70 is identical in
each of FIGS. 8a -8c. The contact in FIG. 8c having the shank with a
curved cross section is capable of fitting within the receptacle 70, while
the contacts of FIGS. 8a and 8b do not fit within the confines of
receptacle 70.
Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, there is shown a portion of a receptacle 70
which contains a socket contact 10 according to the invention. FIG. 9
shows the receptacle with the preferred socket contact of FIGS. 2 and 5,
while FIG. 10 shows the alternative embodiment of the socket contact of
FIG. 7. The receptacle 70 is formed in a housing 72 adapted to provide a
plurality of receptacles 70 and to thereby hold a plurality of contacts
10. It will be understood that housing. 72 includes a plurality of
receptacles 70 which are spaced apart in a direction perpendicular to the
plane of FIGS. 9 and 10. It will be further understood that housing 72 may
include multiple receptacles 70 in the plane of FIGS. 9 and 10, although
only a single receptacle 70 is shown. Housing 72 includes a pin contact
receiving opening 74 at one end of receptacle 70. Formed contact 10 is
inserted into receptacle 70 in the direction of arrow 76 (opposite pin
insertion direction 14) and is retained in receptacle 70 by several
features. First, receptacle 70 includes a recessed area 78 for receiving
contact 10. As contact 10 is inserted into receptacle 70, shank 22 of
contact 10 slides into recessed area 78. Back edge 80 of shank 22 then
abuts lip 82 of recessed area 78 and is prevented from moving out of
receptacle 70. Barbs 28 also provide a retaining force by engaging the
softer material of housing 72.
Receptacle 70 is preferably provided with a beam constraint 84. Beam
constraint 84 is positioned within receptacle 70 to prevent shank 22 from
bending out of alignment and presenting a "stubbing" condition to contact
pin 48. Beam constraint 84 also minimizes vibration of the contact during,
for example, ultrasonic welding operations which are performed with the
finished connector. If the contact vibrates excessively, the contact may
crack or be damaged in some other manner. Beam constraint 84 may be
positioned on only a single side of pin 48, or alternatively a beam
constraint 84 may be positioned on each side of an inserted contact pin
48.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to
preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that
modifications and alterations may be employed while still remaining within
the spirit and scope of the invention.
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